Sir F. D. Lngard's Report on Northern Nigeria for the
year 1902, which is published this week as a Blue-book, is full of valuable information. It contains a complete account of the Kano Campaign, which brought about the end of the "worst and most extensive slave-raiding system in Africa." The High Commissioner's narrative may be recommended to lovers of the gruesome, for anything more horrible than the account of the Kano dungeons we have rarely read. He has much that is interesting to say about the future develop- ment of Northern Nigeria, and the openings which it gives to British trade. One of the most serious questions is that of transport. He considers British Colonies much behind those of France and Germany in the matter of road construction, and expresses the hope that much may be done shortly in North Nigeria to remedy this defect. We may note, too, a very interesting defence of the appointment of military officers to most administrative posts. " It is indeed," he says, "a characteristic of the British officer that, when in civil employ, his rule is often marked by less `militarism than that of the civilian," and in the absence of men with African administrative experience he considers the soldier an admirable man for the work.
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